Wednesday, June 21, 2017

When we think about the great business tasks of our time Digital Transformation is the must-do. It is often heralded as some kind of future-proofing excercise. But without innovation as both its beating heart and foundational principal, it can be little more than a retro fit.

Digital Transformation is the widescale response to Digital Disruption - ie a disruption that has happened. That disruption is often to the way people behave: People, machines and information now connect in such a way that a human behaviour has changed - ie how people consume content has been disrupted by new connections between people, machines and information. That has created new needs. To meet them is to transform to meet the needs of digital disruption.

Each strategic goal in digital transformation is therefore a response to a need created by a digital disruption.

But if you take an innovation-first approach to digital transformation, you create the space to become the disruptor.

Consider the impact of the technologies we know of today. Prepare for them to impact faster and more broadly than the web ever did. Imagine and expect the improbable.

The opportunity, for those who will understand the potential of AI and who can imagine its possibilities, is not to be digital - but to be the disruptor.